4squareviews

The 5th Edition PMBOK® Guide introduced a new knowledge area called Stakeholder Management.   Before then, stakeholder management was done as part of communications management.   But PMI felt that it is not only important to communicate with stakeholders, but also to actively engage them during the course of the project.

This concept is continued in the 6th Edition.   Stakeholder management not only has processes in the planning, executing, and monitoring and controlling process group, but it also has a process in the initiating process group, namely this process 13.1 Identify Stakeholders.   This post will discuss the inputs to this process.

13.1.1  Identify Stakeholders:  Inputs

13.1.1.1.  Project Charter

The project charter contains the statement of what the project is about, and gives authorization to the project manager to run the project.   Besides these key functions, however, the project charter contains vital information relevant to specific knowledge areas, including stakeholder management.   It should contain a list of the key stakeholders, which is the starting point for this process, as well as information about their responsibilities within the organization.

13.1.1.2  Business Documents

Project managers need to look at the documents created by business analysts, whose outputs are the business documents listed below.   These documents may contain key information about stakeholders that will be useful in doing this process.

• Business case–identifies the project objectives and identifies an initial list of stakeholders affected by the project.
• Benefits management plan–benefits management does not have to do with human resources; in the language of PMI, it refers to realizing the benefits claimed in the business case.   Stakeholders are identified that will benefit from the delivery of the outcomes of the project.

13.1.1.3  Project Management Plan

The two components of the overall project management plan that are used in the course of this process are the communications management plan and the procurement management plan.   These knowledge areas are linked; as mentioned above, stakeholder management developed as an outgrowth of communications management.

• Communications management plan–contains information about how to communicate with the various types of stakeholders
• Stakeholder engagement plan–identifies management strategies and actions required to effectively engage stakeholders in general

13.1.1.4  Project Documents

Although project documents are not available for the initial stakeholder identification, they will be useful for stakeholder identification that occurs throughout the project.

• Change log–may be updated to introduce a new stakeholder or change the nature of an existing stakeholder’s relationship to the project (this can happen if the person’s job description within the organization changes)
• Issue log–may be updated if new issues introduce a new stakeholder or change the type of participation of existing stakeholders
• Requirements documentation–may provide information on potential stakeholders that are relevant to specific requirements of the project

13.1.1.5  Agreements

The parties to an agreement are project stakeholders, whether the agreements are with sellers who provide procurements or with other organizations who are sharing the project work.

13.1.1.6 Enterprise Environmental Factors

• Government or industry standards
• Global, regional, or local trends

13.1.1.7  Organizational Process Assets

• Stakeholder register templates and instructions, and actual stakeholder registers from previous projects
• Lessons learned repository with information about the involvement of stakeholders.

The next post will cover the tools and techniques associated with process.

Filed under: Uncategorized |